Skip to main content

PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Politics & government fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about politics & government. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

12,741 published reviews in this topic

dpaPolitics & government

In 1976 ontwikkelde de VN het Habitat 1 plan om mensen in megasteden om ze beter te controleren.

Publisher’s rating: De Habitat I VN-conferentie in Vancouver in 1976 besprak de uitdagingen die verstedelijking met zich meebrengen, vooral in ontwikkelingslanden. Er was helemaal geen sprake van dwingende plannen om megasteden te ontwikkelen, noch om mensen te dwingen daar te wonen.

The claim concerns a social-media video describing a UN plan, supposedly dating from 1976, to make the world’s population live in megacities where people could be more easily controlled. The review identifies the event referenced by the video as Habitat I, a UN conference held in Vancouver in 1976. It says the conference addressed how to support sustainable urban development in response to rapid urbanisation and population growth, especially in developing countries—not how to force people into megacities. The review describes the conference’s conclusion as recognising adequate housing and services as a human right, placing responsibility on governments to help secure them, particularly for disadvantaged people. It says the resulting Vancouver Declaration contained 64 recommendations for governments, which were not binding rules and did not set out the video’s alleged plan. The review also points to a recommendation about improving rural habitat, which runs against the idea that the conference aimed to eliminate rural life. The account further distinguishes the conference from the organisation later established as a consequence of it: UN-Habitat. According to the review, that organisation promotes social and sustainable urban development. The review reports that UN-Habitat director Rafael Tuts told Australian fact-checkers at AAP that plans of the kind shown in the video did not exist. On the evidence described, the video recasts a conference about responding to urbanisation and housing needs as a coercive population-control scheme.

FACTLYPolitics & government

Video of Rahul Gandhi stating that he had a conversation with Mahatma Gandhi

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The video’s wording can sound as though Rahul Gandhi is describing a conversation he personally had with Mahatma Gandhi. FACTLY’s review says the circulating excerpt was trimmed and that the longer speech changes who had the conversation: Gandhi was paraphrasing Nehru’s account of a conversation with Mahatma Gandhi, not claiming that it was his own. The review identifies the claim as: “Video of Rahul Gandhi stating that he had a conversation with Mahatma Gandhi.” FACTLY traced the excerpt to Rahul Gandhi’s speech at the Gujarat Congress unit’s Chintan Shivir in February 2022. At the relevant passage, Gandhi was discussing a letter by Nehru. As FACTLY describes it, Nehru wrote about a conversation he had with Mahatma Gandhi and acknowledged that, although he thought his own reasoning was right, he ultimately recognized Gandhi was right. The review says Gandhi’s remarks were misconstrued as a personal claim because the viral video removed parts of the speech that supplied this context. The review’s conclusion rests on comparing the clipped video with the longer speech and identifying what Gandhi was discussing at the relevant moment. It reports tracing the widely shared clip through reverse-image searches of screenshots to an original video posted on the Congress party’s official Twitter account, and says the party also published the complete speech on its official YouTube channel. The supplied excerpt does not include the full recording itself, so these source-checking steps and the review’s account of the passage are the evidence available here.

Belarusian Investigative CenterPolitics & government

Польшу могут выгнать из ЕС

Publisher’s rating: Это фейк. Исключение страны из ЕС не предусмотрено — в документах Евросоюза не прописана такая процедура. Возможен только ее добровольный выход из союза.

FACTLYPolitics & government

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot spoke in support of Khalistan movement

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

FACTLY investigated a video circulated with the claim that Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot supported the Khalistan movement. Its conclusion was that the clip was misleading: the full remarks, as described in the review, do not show Gehlot endorsing the movement. Instead, he was discussing statements by Waris Punjab De chief Amritpal Singh and expressing concern about Khalistan-related demands. The review says Gehlot characterized those demands as dangerous to the country. To identify the setting, FACTLY reports using relevant-keyword searches and tracing the video to a party workers’ meeting in Bharatpur on 31 March 2023. It says it compared the circulating clip with an original video published by Dainik Bhaskar and a YouTube video from a news channel. According to the review, Gehlot argued that talk of a Hindu nation by Mohan Bhagwat and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given Amritpal Singh courage to speak about Khalistan. That is a criticism of the political context and a warning about the demands—not support for them. The omitted context changes the apparent meaning: the review says Gehlot went on to describe the issue as dangerous and warn that other communities or regions might make similar demands. FACTLY’s account therefore distinguishes his reference to Khalistan from advocacy for it. Its closing description is that a clipped video was shared as though Gehlot supported the separatist movement.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturPolitics & government

Alice Weidel muss seit zehn Tagen an einem geheimen Ort bleiben und die Medien berichten nicht darüber.

Publisher’s rating: Mehrere Medien berichteten über den Vorfall: Zwar wurde Alice Weidel nach einer mutmaßlichen Bedrohungslage an einen sicheren Ort gebracht, dennoch darf die AfD-Politikerin diesen verlassen – und das hat sie nach Angaben ihres Sprechers auch getan. Dieser bestätigte zudem den anfänglich geheimen Ort, nämlich Mallorca.

BR24 FaktenfuchsPolitics & government

"Die AfD in ihrem Programm will die Kita für Ein- bis Dreijährige abschaffen und die Frauen wieder zurück nach Hause schicken."

Publisher’s rating: Größtenteils falsch. Im bayerischen Landtagswahl-Programm und auch im Grundsatzprogramm der AfD steht nicht, dass die Partei Kitas abschaffen will. Die AfD Bayern steht laut ihrem Programm aber Kita-Betreuung kritisch gegenüber und will die Betreuung von Kleinkindern im eigenen Zuhause finanziell fördern.